The youth team of Club Valencia has won the first match played against the International Soccer Academy (ISA) team, which includes young Australian players, in a series of matches being held in the Maldives. These friendly matches, organized by Maldives Soccer Mates, are taking place at the National Football Stadium in collaboration with the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) and the Ministry of Sports and Fitness. The first match of this series was played this evening between the youth team of Club Valencia and the young Australian players.
Valencia comfortably won this match with a score of 3-0, with the team being coached by Ismail Asif (Kuda Heena). After the match played this evening, speaking to “PSM News,” Maldives Soccer Mates coach Akram Abdul Ghani said that these friendly matches were organized in response to a proposal received by Maldives Soccer Mates in January from the Western Australia Association, through some Maldivians. Akram explained that this came about when the International Soccer Academy, which has connections with the Chelsea Foundation, expressed interest in playing a match with the Maldives Under-17 team, and the matter was shared with the Ministry of Sports and FAM to arrange these matches.
“From that point on, many discussions took place, and this moved forward. We met with the Ministry and FAM, and with the cooperation of all parties, these matches were planned and prepared well in advance,” Akram said. The International Soccer Academy team with young Australian players will face the youth team of Maldives’ Maziya Sports and Recreation tomorrow evening at the National Football Stadium. In the third match on Wednesday, the International Soccer Academy will meet the MS Mates team. Additionally, on Friday evening, they will play a match against the Maldives National Under-17 team.
